That Shakespeare Life

The most memorable illustration of Robert Greene shows him dressed as an ear of corn, sitting at a desk, penning Groatsworth of Wit, his famous deathbed insult that calls William Shakespeare an "upstart crow." That upstart crow may have gone on to eclipse Robert Greene's fame in posterity, but for the moment in which those lines were written about the bard, Robert Greene was not only well established as a playwright in early modern England but held a arguably higher reputation in the playwriting industry than Shakespeare himself. Here to help us peel back the layers of history and explore the life, works, myth, and legend of Robert Greene is our guest, Darren Freebury Jones.

Shakespeare uses the word "beard" in his plays over one hundred times, and almost always as a way to indicate a man's status, power, or authority. In Anthony and Cleopatra Caesar is referred to as "scarce bearded" as a slight against him by Cleopatra, several times the phrase "by my beard" is used in plays like Alls Well That Ends Well, as an oath, and in Henry V Gower refers to a specific style of beard being known as "the general's cut." Throughout the works of Shakespeare we see women swooning over men who have stylish beards, old men being cited for the grey or white color of their beards, and younger men with ambition referring to the presentation and style of their facial hair as an indication of their strength in battle as well as their position of authority. Portraits of men like Robert Devereux and Sir Walter Raleigh testify to intricate detail on a man's face when it came to choosing, and maintaining a beard, but what exactly were the fashion norms for men's facial hair in the 16th century? When we say they "cut them" what did they use for that purpose? Here today to help us explore how men wore their beards, the various styles that were popular, and exactly what kinds of razors a man like William Shakespeare might use to acquire a style like the general's cut to his beard, is our guest and author of Shaving and Masculinity in 18th century Britain, Alun Withey.

When telling about the Battle of Hastings, William Malmesbury wrote a description of the English ancestors, the Anglo Saxons, as having "arms covered with golden bracelets, tattooed with coloured patterns." The trend of tattooing oneself with coloured patterns seems to have fallen to the wayside by the time William Shakespeare was writing about skin used as parchment in Comedy of Errors, because tattoos were far from the everyday normative for your average English citizen in the 16th century. Despite the ancient history of tattoo art on the European continent, for most of the people in Shakespeare's lifetime, tattoos arrived as a new and noteworthy cultural event when they saw them first as international explorers returned from their oceanic voyages, bringing with them natives who were adorned with ink tattoos. British pilgrims to the Holy Lands in the 17th century would often be tattooed with the Jerusalem Cross as a souvenir from their travels. One famous Britain who had this kind of tattoo done was William Lithgow, who returned to England in 1612, causing quite a cultural splash with his new artwork.Here today to help us explore the place, and reality of tattoos in England during Shakespeare's lifetime including what kind of tattoos might have been present, from where, and why is our guest, Matt Lodder

Ale was a popular drink in Shakespeare's London, due in part to the undrinkable nature of the water from the nearby Thames River. The fear of water and superstitions about drinking it, extended well beyond England's capital city, and extended even over the Atlantic Ocean to the colonies of Early American settlers, who coming from England, brought with them a surprising opinion about water in general. New England colonists in the early 17th century arrived with fear of what they called "cleire water", believing as a result of their experience with waterways like the Thames that plain water was dangerous. Here to share with us some of the experiences and opinions about water held by 16-17th century England, including the stories by 16th century writer Richard Hawkings who described Native Americans as mermaids because of their magic ability to both swim and treat water as "their natural element" is our guest, Vaughn Scribner.

Many famous people from history have had their lives come to an end by execution. We tell these stories with gusto, reverence, and sometimes even humor, but the person responsible for being the executioner goes largely unnoticed beyond the recognition that someone, albeit we rarely know who, had to actually be the executioner.

The word "executioner" comes up in Shakespeare's plays 17 times, twice referred to as a "common" executioner, twice mentioned in context of characters expressing their distaste for the profession, and a few times mentioned in the stage directions as a character appearing on stage. But what was an executioner supposed to look like on stage in the 16th century? If it was a common profession, how did someone become an executioner? Who were England's executioners, how were they hired for this repulsive job, and with something so repugnant as a career that several characters in Shakespeare's plays verbalize how much they hate the idea of being an executioner, what must it have been like to live in early modern England as an executioner--were there personal ramifications against them for the performance of their duties?Here to help us answer these questions and explore the profession of official executioner in early modern England is our guest, DJ Guba.

When Shakespeare was 39 years old, in 1603, King James of Scotland succeeded Queen Elizabeth after her death, and he brought with him a famous repugnancy, and some call it outright fear, of witches during his reign. In Scotland, where James was dually King at this time, witchcraft had been considered a capital offense since 1563. The King brought this perspective to his management of witchcraft in England, as well. In 1604, just one year after his accession as King, James removed the mercy from Elizabeth's Act by making it a certain death penalty without clergy for anyone who invoked evil spirits or communed with what were known then as "familiars" (a general term for supernatural spirits). Jacobean England saw the creation of an official position in the English government called the Witch-Finder General, whose job as you might expect from the title was to find witches and enforce the required punishment.

One of the first trials in England to test the new and broadened laws on witchcraft under James I was the mysterious case of Anne Gunter. In 1604, Anne Gunter became sick with an illness that confounded physicians. They concluded her illness must be the result of supernatural influence, and a trial ensued to try and find the suspected witchcraft. During the trial, Anne experienced a theatrical fit of vomiting and other convulsions during which she accused 3 local women of being witches. This caused a flurry of debate over whether Anne was suffering from real witchcraft, or if she was putting on a show to try and deceive the court. Our guest this week tested this theory himself in a college classroom when he, along with his students, decided to re-create the trial of Anne Gunter and the early modern experience of witch trials in a legal courtroom. We are delighted to welcome Todd Butler to the show this week to tell us about the trial of Anne Gunter and the results of his experiment.

Famously, the grave of William Shakespeare is marked with an ominous entreaty carved on his stone that warns against disturbing his bones, declaring a curse on anyone that disturbs the dust enclosed here. Respecting Shakespeare's wishes has meant that it was impossible to excavate the grave of the bard and explore questions like how he was buried, or even to confirm longstanding rumors about Shakespeare's grave, including the idea that his skull was stolen by grave robbers in the 18th century. Impossible that is, until modern technology came up with a way to scan the graves digitally and explore the insides without disturbing any dust. That's exactly the project a team of archaeologists from Staffordshire University embarked upon in 2016 when they went to Holy Trinity Church in Stratford Upon Avon, England, and applied a combination of radar technology and digital scans to take a look inside the grave of William Shakespeare, which was turned into a major documentary project for Channel 4 called Shakespeare's Tomb. Our guest this week, Kevin Colls, was the lead archaeologist on that project, and he's here to share with us what lies beneath the stones of Shakespeare's final resting place.

For centuries, theater historians have glossed over noy only the location, but actually argued over the very existence of a theater at Newington Butts. Originally established as an archery range under Henry VIII during a time when learning the sport of archery was required for all young men, the high ground at Newington Butts just outside of London proper would morph into a popular theater destination that our guest this week believes was not only a frequent destination for playing companies, but may have also been a playhouse that William Shakespeare stopped at several times. To share with us ground breaking research that changes what we thought we knew about early modern theater, and to research that is tantalizingly close to information about Shakespeare's Lost Years, is our distinguished guest, Laurie Johnson.

William Shakespeare's father was a man named John Shakespeare. When you study William's life you often hear about John Shakespeare, as many references to glove making in Shakespeare's plays like the glover's pairing knife in Merry Wives of Windsor come from an intimate knowledge with the glove making trade, which most assume came from William's father John. When it comes to the life of John Shakespeare, however, the man was much more than a glover, having served also as an ale taster, alderman, and found himself embroiled in a great deal of legal and financial trouble that some historians believe contributed to our lack of records for Shakespeare's grammar school days. To help us understand John Shakespeare better and explore the records we have of his life and how he came to be the father of the world's greatest playwright, we welcome our guest, Bob Bearman, to tell us John's story.

In 16th century England, Christmas time was a season of disorder, with many of the holiday celebrations centering around the idea of Misrule, role reversal, and a celebration of general chaos as part of the festivities. Which makes it surprising that the one place you would expect to find extreme order, the Inns of Court, which were essentially Law School for England's budding lawyers, was also the establishment where Shakespeare staged a performance of Comedy of Errors on Dec 28, 1594, which was so riotous, that members of the audience would refer to that night as the Night of Errors, setting up a subsequent mock trial for the law students to sort out who was the culprit behind the holiday disorder in the court.

Here to help us explore the wild and out of order nature of Shakespeare's 1594 performance of Comedy of Errors, and why it seems Gray's Inn in particular was such a hot spot for budding law students to quench their thirst for theater, is our guest Dr Joe Stephenson.